1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) systems. In particular, this invention relates to a method of initializing modems in a DSL system.
2. Description of Related Art
Multicarrier modulation, or Discrete Multitone Modulation (DMT), is a transmission method that is being widely used for communication over media, and especially over difficult media. Multicarrier modulation divides the transmission frequency band into multiple subchannels, i.e., carriers, with each carrier individually modulating a bit or a collection of bits. A transmitter modulates an input data stream containing information bits with one or more carriers and transmits the modulated information. A receiver demodulates all of the carriers in order to recover the transmitted information bits as an output data stream.
Multicarrier modulation has many advantages over single carrier modulation. These advantages include, for example, a higher immunity to impulse noise, a lower complexity equalization requirement in the presence of a multipath, a higher immunity to narrow band interference, a higher data rate and bandwidth flexibility. Multicarrier modulation is being used in many applications to obtain these advantages, as well as for other reasons. The applications include, for example, Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) systems, Wireless LAN systems, power line communications systems, and other applications. ITU standards G.992.1, G.992.2 and the ANSI T1.413 standard, each of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety, specify standard implementations for ADSL transceivers that use multicarrier modulation.
FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary standard compliant ADSL DMT transmitter 100. In particular, the ADSL DMT transmitter 100 comprises three layers: the modulation layer 110, the Framer/Forward Error Correction (FEC) layer 120, and the ATM TC (Asynchronous Transfer Mode Transmission Convergence) layer 140.
The modulation layer 110 provides the functionality associated with DMT modulation. In particular, DMT modulation is implemented using an Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform (IDFT) 112. The IDFT 112 modulates bits from the Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) encoder 114 into the multicarrier subchannels. The ADSL multicarrier transceiver modulates a number of bits on each subchannel, the number of bits depending on the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) of that subchannel and the Bit Error Rate (BER) requirement of the communications link. For example, if the required BER is 1xc3x9710xe2x88x927, i.e., one bit in ten million is received in error on average, and the SNR of a particular subchannel is 21.5 dB, then that subchannel can modulate 4 bits, since 21.6 dB is the required SNR to transmit 4 QAM bits with a 1xc3x9710xe2x88x927 BER. Other subchannels can have a different number of bits allocated to them at the same BER. The current ITU and ANSI ADSL standards allow up to 15 bits to be modulated on one carrier.
A table that specifies how many bits are allocated to each subchannel for modulation is one DMT symbol is called a Bit Allocation Table (BAT). A DMT symbol is the collection of analog samples generated at the output of the IDFT by modulating the carriers with bits according to the BAT is the main parameter used in the modulation layer 110. The BAT is used by the QAM encoder 114 and the IDFT 112 for encoding and modulation. The following Table illustrates an example of a BAT for an ememplary DMT system having 16 subchannels.
In ADSL systems, the typical DMT symbol rate is approximately 4 kHz. This means that a new set of bits, using the modulation BAT, is transmitted every 250 microseconds. If the exemplary BAT in Table 1, which specifies 80 bits modulated in one DMT symbol, were used at a 4 kHz DMT symbol rate, the bit rate of the system would be 4000*80=320 kbits per second (kbps).
The BAT determines the data rate of the system and is dependent on the transmission channel characteristics, i.e., the SNR of each subchannel in the multicarrier system. A channel with low noise, i.e., a high SNR on each subchannel, will have many bits modulated on each DMT carrier and will thus have a high bit rate. If the channel conditions are poor, e.g., high noise, the SNR will be low and the bits modulated on each carrier will be few, resulting in a low system bit rate. As can be seen in Table 1, some subchannels may actually modulate zero bits. An example is the case when a narrow band interferer, such as an AM broadcast, is present at a subchannel""s frequency and causes the SNR in that subchannel to be too low to carry any information bits.
The ATM TC layer 140 comprises an Asynchronous Transfer Mode Transmission Convergence (ATM TC) section 142 that transforms bits and bytes in cells into frames.
The Framer/FEC layer 120 provides the functionality associated with preparing a stream of bits for modulation. The Framer/FEC layer 120 comprises an Interleaving (INT) portion 122, a Forward Error Correction (FEC) portion 124, a scrambler (SCR) portion 126, a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) portion 128 and an ADSL Framer portion 130. The Interleaving and FEC coding provide an impulse immunity and a coding gain. The FEC portion 124 in the standard ADSL system is a Reed-Solomon (R-S) code. The scrambler 126 is used to randomize the data bits. The CRC portion 128 is used to provide error detection at the receiver. The ADSL Framer portion 130 frames the received bits from the ATM framer 142. The ADSL framer 130 also inserts and extracts overhead bits from the module 132 for modem to modem overhead communication channels, which are known as EOC and AOC channels in the ADSL standards.
The key parameters of the Framer/FEC layer 120 are the size of the R-S codeword, the size, i.e., depth, of the interleaver, which is measured in the number of R-S codewords, and the size of the ADSL frame. As an example, a typical size for an R-S codeword may be 216 bytes, a typical size for interleaver depth may be 64 codewords, and a typical size of the ADSL frame may be 200 bytes. It is also possible to have an interleaving depth equal to one, which is equivalent to no interleaving. In order to recover the digital signal that was originally prepared for transmission using a transmitter as discussed above, it is necessary to deinterleave the codewords by using a deinterleaver that performs the inverse process to that of the interleaver, with the same depth parameter. In the current ADSL standards, there is a specific relationship between all of these parameters in a DMT system. Specifically, the BAT size, NBAT, i.e., the total number of bits in a DMT symbol, is fixed to be an integer divisor of the R-S codeword size, NFEC, as expressed in Equation 1:
NFEC=S*NBAT,xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(1) 
where S is a positive integer greater than 0.
This constant can also be expressed as one R-S codeword containing an integer number of DMT symbols. The R-S codeword contains data bytes and parity, i.e, checkbytes. The checkbytes are overhead bytes that are added by the R-S encoder and are used by the R-S decoder to detect and correct bit errors. There are R checkbytes in a R-S codeword. Typically, the number of checkbytes is a small percentage of the overall codeword size, e.g., 8%. Most channel coding methods are characterized by their coding gain, which is defined as the system performance improvement, in dB, provided by the code when compared to an uncoded system. The coding gain of the R-S codeword depends on the number of checkbytes and the R-S codeword size. A large R-S codeword, e.g., greater than 200 bytes in a DMT ADSL system, along with 16 checkbytes, i.e., 8% of the 200 bytes, will provide close to the maximum coding gain of 4 dB. If the codeword size is smaller and/or the percentage of checkbyte overhead is high, e.g., greater than 30%, the coding gain may be very small or even negative. In general, it is best to have the ADSL system operating with the largest possible R-S codeword, with the current maximum being 255 bytes, and approximately 8% redundancy.
There is also a specific relationship between the number of bytes in an ADSL frame, NFRAME, and the R-S codeword size, NFEC that is expressed in Equation (2):
xe2x80x83NFEC=Sxc3x97NFRAME+R,xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(2)
where R is the number of R-S checkbytes in a codeword and S is the same positive integer as in Equation (1).
It is apparent from equating the right-hand sides of Equations (1) and (2) that the relationship expressed in Equation (3) results in:
NBAT=NFRAME+R/S.xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(3) 
The current ADSL standard requires that the ratio (R/S) is an integer, i.e. there is an integer number of R-S checkbytes in every DMT-symbol (NBAT). As described above, ADSL frames contain overhead bytes, which are not part of the payload, that are used for modem to modem communications. A byte in an ADSL frame that is used for the overhead channel cannot be used for the actual user data communication, and therefore the user data rate decreases accordingly. The information content and format of these channels is described in the ITU and ANSI standards. There are several framing modes defined in ADSL standards. Depending on the framing mode, the number of overhead bytes in one ADSL frame varies. For example, standard Framing Mode 3 has 1 overhead byte per ADSL frame.
Equations (1), (2) and (3) demonstrate that the parameter restrictions imposed by the standards result in the following conditions:
All DMT symbols have a fixed number of overhead framing bytes that are added at the ADSL framer. For example, in Framing Mode #3, there is 1 overhead framing byte per DMT symbol.
There is a minimum of one R-S checkbyte per DMT symbol.
The maximum number of checkbytes according to ITU Standard G.992.2 (8) and ITU Standards G.992.2 and T1.413 (16) limits the maximum codeword size to 8*NBAT for G.992.2, and to 16*NBAT for G.992.1 and T1.413.
An ADSL modem cannot change the number of bits in a DMT symbol (NBAT) without making the appropriate changes to the number of bytes in a R-S codeword (NFEC) and an ADSL frame (NFRAME).
The above four restrictions cause performance limitations in current ADSL systems. In particular, because of condition 1, every DMT symbol has a fixed number of overhead framing bytes. This is a problem when the data rate is low and the overhead framing bytes consume a large percentage of the possible throughput, which results in a lower payload. For example, if the date rate supported by the line is 6.144 Mbps, this will result in a DMT symbol with about 192 bytes per symbol (192*8*4000=6144 kbps). In this case, one overhead framing byte would consume 1/192 or about 0.5% of the available throughput. But if the date rate is 128 kbps, or 4 bytes per symbol, the overhead framing byte will consume xc2xc or 25% of the available throughput. Clearly this is undesirable.
Condition 2 will cause the same problems as condition 1. In this case, the overhead framing byte is replaced by the R-S checkbyte.
Condition 3 will not allow the construction of large codewords when the data rate is low. The R-S codewords in ADSL can have a maximum of 255 bytes. The maximum coding gain is achieved when the codeword size is near the maximum 255 bytes. When the data rate is low, e.g., 128 kbps or 4 bytes per symbol, the maximum codeword size will be 8*4=32 bytes for G.992.2 systems and 16*4=64 bytes for G.992.1 and T1.413 systems. In this case the coding gain will be substantially lower than for large codewords approaching 255 bytes.
In general, if the data rate is low, e.g., 128 kbps or 4 bytes per symbol, the above conditions will result in 1 byte being used for overhead framing, and 1 byte being consumed by an R-S checkbyte. Therefore 50% of the available throughput will not be used for payload and the R-S codeword size will be at most 64 bytes, resulting in negligible coding gain.
Condition 4 affects the ability of the modem to adapt its transmission parameters on-line in a dynamic manner.
G.992.1 and T1.413 specify a mechanism to do on-line rate adaptation, called Dynamic Rate Adaptation (DRA), but it is clearly stated in these standards that the change in data rate will not be seamless. In general, current ADSL DMT modems use Bit Swapping and dynamic rate adaptation (DRA) as methods for on-line adaptation to channel changes. Bit swapping is specified in the ITU and ANSI standards as a method for modifying the number of bits allocated to a particular carrier. Bit Swapping is seamless, i.e., it does not result in an interruption in data transmission and reception, however, bit swapping does not allow a changing of data rates. Bit Swapping only allows the changing of the number of bits allocated to carriers while maintaining the same data rate. This is equivalent to changing the entries in the BAT table without allowing the total number of bits (NBAT) in the BAT to increase or decrease.
DRA enables a change in data rate, but is not seamless. DRA is also very slow because it requires the modem located in the Central Office (CO) to make the final decision on the data rate configuration. This model, where the CO being the master, is common among ADSL modems that are designed to provide a service offered and controller by the telephone company.
Both Bit Swapping and DRA use a specific protocol that is specified in the ANSI T1.413, G.992.1 and G.992.2 standards for negotiating the change. This protocol negotiates the parameters using messages that are sent via an AOC channel, which is an embedded channel. This protocol is sensitive to impulse noise and high noise levels. If the messages are corrupted, the transmitter and receiver can enter a state where they are using different transmission parameters, e.g., BAT, data rate, R-S codeword length, interleaver depth, etc. When two communicating modems enter a state of mismatched transmission parameters, data will be received in error and the modems will eventually be required to take drastic measures, such as full re-initialization, in order to restore error free transmission. Drastic measures such as full reinitialization will result in the service being dropped for approximately 10 seconds, which is the time required for the current standards compliant ADSL modem to complete a full initialization.
A transceiver has both a transmitter and a receiver. The receiver includes the receiver equivalent blocks of the transmitter as shown in FIG. 1. The receiver has modules that include a decoder, a deinterleaver and a demodulator. In operation, the receiver accepts a signal in analog form that was transmitted by a transmitter, optionally amplifies the signal in an amplifier, filters the signal to remove noise components and to separate the signal from other frequencies, converts the analog signal to a digital signal through the use of an analog to digital converter, demodulates the signal to generate the received bit stream from the carrier subchannels by the use of a demodulator, deinterleaves the bit stream by the use of a deinterleaver, performs the FEC decoding to correct errors in the bit stream by use of an FEC decoder, descrambles the bit stream by use of a descrambler, and detects bit errors in the bit stream by use of a CRC. Various semiconductor chip manufacturers supply hardware and software that can perform the functions of a transmitter, a receiver, or both.
In addition, to establish communication between the transceivers at the very onset, full initialization of the modems of the transceivers must be completed. Conventional ADSL modems will always go through an initialization procedure during which known training signals are set between the transceivers. Conventional ADSL modems utilize an initialization procedure as specified in the 992.1 and 994.1 standards, as well as the published but not yet adopted G.dmt.bis standard, which are incorporated herein by reference.
The primary purpose of the initialization procedure is to measure the line conditions and train all receiver functions of the transceivers to optimize the ADSL transmission system to thereby maximize the data rates.
During the initialization procedure various transmission parameter values are determined. The parameters values include, for example, bit error rate, bit allocation value, gain value, or such parameter values that have been grouped such as in bit allocation tables and gain tables as well as other parameters such as the overhead bits of the EOC and AOC channels, size of the R-S codeword, number of parity bits in the R-S codeword, depth of the interleaver, size of the ADSL frame, and overhead framing bytes. The parameter values may also be the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the channel that is accurately measured so that maximum possible data rate can be attained, the time domain equalizer filter taps, the frequency domain equalizer filter taps, the echo canceller filter taps, and the like.
Typically, the full initialization procedure is attained in a series of initialization steps where one or more of the above noted parameter values that define the characteristics of the communication link between the transceivers are determined in one initialization step prior to proceeding to the next initialization step. This standard initialization procedure is illustrated in the functional block diagram of FIG. 2. Upon beginning the intitialization of the modems of the transceivers in the ADSL transmission system in step S20, a series of initialization steps are taken in sequence: initialization step S22, initialization step S24, and then initialization step S26. Each of these initialization steps require one or more parameter values noted previously that define the characteristics of the communication link between the transceivers. In this regard, the actual parameter value A indicated as 21 is needed to complete initialization step S22, the actual parameter value B indicated as 23 is needed to complete initialization step S24, and the actual parameter value C indicated as 25 is needed to complete initialization step S26. Each of these actual parameter values must be determined based on the type of modem, the standards used, and the condition of the communication channel in the standard initialization procedures.
Of course, these initialization steps are illustrated generically since they depend on the particular initialization standard followed. For instance, in initialization step S22, a handshake procedure between the transceivers may be performed to indicate that a communication link is desired between them. In initialization step S24, a channel between the transceivers that is available for use in establishing the communication link may be discovered. The initializing step S26 may be the step in which the transceivers are trained based on additional parameter values to designate attributes of the discovered channel. For example, in a multicarrier communication system step S26 may be used to measure the SNR of every subchannel. Based on the measured SNR parameter the transceiver would determine the bit allocation and gain tables. In this regard, each of the initialization steps would likely entail determination and/or use of one or more of the various parameter values by one or both of the modems, depending on the parameter value, to aid in the process of establishing the steady state communication link.
Once the various parameter values are determined and the receiver signal processors are trained in the initialization steps, the initialization of the modems are complete as indicated by S27, thus allowing the modems to establish a steady state communication link as shown in S28. When such steady state communication link is established as indicated by S28, the transmission system is functional and is in a data transmission mode so that the user may operate the communications system to transmit and receive data.
In the above described standard initialization procedure shown in FIG. 2, the steady state communication link is only established after the completion of all the initialization steps. Time is required to determine the actual parameter values required in the various initialization steps. In this regard, as noted previously, the initialization of the modems of the transceivers compliant to the current standards typically take approximately 10 seconds, during which time the user is precluded from using the system. Thus, the user must wait for the completion of initialization of the modems before the communication system establishes a communication link that allows the user to utilize the system to transmit and receive data. This delay of approximately 10 seconds is viewed by many users, equipment providers and service providers as a negative aspect of ADSL service since it means that every time the ADSL link is established or reconnected after a loss of synchronization, the user must wait approximately 10 seconds for the complete initialization to finish prior to using the system.
Moreover, as also noted previously, this initialization period not only occurs during the initial powering of the system, but also when two communicating modems enter a state of mismatched transmission parameters which result in data being received, for example, in error. Since full reinitialization is required to restore error free transmission, the data service is dropped for the duration of the reinitialization period so that the user is again precluded from utilizing the system. This results in numerous 10 second delays if the two communicating modems are prone to entering a state of mismatched transmission due to changes in line quality, interference, or the like.
In view of the above, one aspect of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is that it provides a method for initializing modems which reduces the duration in which the user is precluded from utilizing the system as a communication link.
Another aspect of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is that it provides a method for initializing modems that allows a rapid transition to a data communications state.
Still another aspect of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is that it provides such a method for initializing modems that optimizes the communication link between the modems while data is communicated therebetween.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, the above noted advantages are attained by a method for initializing transceivers in a multicarrier transmission system to establish a communication link between the transmitter and the receiver. The method includes the steps of providing at least one predetermined parameter value that approximates a corresponding actual parameter value of the communication link between the transmitter and the receiver, establishing a data communication link between the transmitter and the receiver using the at least one predetermined parameter value as an approximation of the actual parameter value of the communication link, thus allowing the multicarrier transmission system to transmit data between the transmitter and the receiver, the data communication link established using the at least one predetermined parameter value having an associated data rate that may be different than a data rate attained when the actual parameter value corresponding to the at least one predetermined parameter value is used, determining the actual parameter value corresponding to the at least one predetermined parameter value after establishing the data communication link using the predetermined parameter value, and seamlessly adapting the data rate of the established communication link by using the determined actual parameter value to provide a steady state communication link with a different data rate.
In the above regard, the at least one predetermined parameter value may be a plurality of predetermined parameter values that approximate a plurality of actual parameter values where the communication link is established using the plurality of predetermined parameter values. The data rate of the communication link established using the plurality of predetermined parameter values may be different than a data rate attained when the plurality of actual parameter values are used. Each of the plurality of actual parameter values are determined and the data rate of the communication link is seamlessly adapted using the determined plurality of actual parameter values. In this regard, the exemplary step of determining each of the plurality of actual parameter values is attained iteratively in a manner that at least one actual parameter value is determined in each iteration. Preferably, the exemplary method further includes the step of iteratively seamlessly adapting the data rate of the communication link after each iteration as the at least one actual parameter value is determined in each iteration.
In accordance with another exemplary embodiment, the plurality of predetermined parameter values and the corresponding actual parameter values may be indicative of at least one of a signal to noise ratio, a bit error rate, a bit allocation value, a bit allocation table, a gain value and a gain table. Alternatively, or in addition, the plurality of predetermined parameter values and the corresponding actual parameter values may be indicative of at least one of overhead bits of EOC and AOC channels, codeword size, number of parity bits in a codeword, depth of an interleaver, size of an ADSL frame, and overhead framing bytes. Alternatively, or in addition, the plurality of predetermined and the corresponding actual parameter values may be indicative of the channel SNR, the time domain equalizer filter taps, the frequency domain equalizer filter taps and the echo canceller filter taps.
In accordance with another exemplary aspect of the present invention, a modem initializing procedure is provided for initializing modems in a multicarrier transmission system that minimizes the amount of time in the initialization sequence before transitioning to a data communication state. The modem initializing procedure includes the steps of exchanging a message that indicates that a communication link is desired between the transceivers, determining a channel between the plurality of transceivers that is available for use in establishing the communication link, accessing at least one predetermined parameter value that approximates an actual parameter value of the communication link between the transmitter and the receiver, training the transceivers using the at least one predetermined parameter value to designate attributes of the determined channel, establishing a data communication link through the determined channel using the at least one predetermined parameter value to allow a user to use the multicarrier transmission system to transmit and receive data between the plurality of transceivers, the established data communication link having a data rate that is generally, although not necessarily, lower than a data rate attainable using the actual parameter value that corresponds to the at least one predetermined parameter value, analyzing the channel to determine the actual parameter value after establishing the data communication link using the at least one predetermined parameter value, and seamlessly increasing the data rate of the established data communication link using the determined actual parameter value to provide a steady state communication link with an updated data rate.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the invention, ADSL DMT systems and methods are provided that establish a data communication link during initialization and that change the data transmission bit rate parameters in a seamless manner during initialization. The ADSL DMT systems and methods operate according to protocols that allow the seamless change of transmission bit rates during initialization and this seamless change of transmission bit rates may be initiated by either the transmitter or the receiver, e.g., the CO or the CPE modem.